Spencer For Hire
by amy1oM-InnitMarvelous
Summary: In the middle of a job, the team learns one of the ugly truths about Eliot's past. Post Season 3 with spoilers up to 'The San Lorenzo Job'
1. Chapter 1

**Spoilers: **This is post Season 3 so there are spoilers up to/through 'The Big Bang Job' and 'The San Lorenzo Job'

**Summary:** In the middle of a job, the team learns one of the ugly truths about Eliot's past.

**AN:** This was originally intended for Heist #3 Challenge 27's _Tell the Truth_ but since the muse didn't want to cooperate with me to finish in time I decide to turn this story into a Big Bang entry.

**Disclaimers: **I don't own **Leverage** or its characters both belong to John Rogers, Chris Downey, and TNT. I've made zilch from this so I ask that you sue me not!

0o0

**Chapter 1**

"Please, Mr. Ford, if you don't help me, I'm afraid I'll never get Ilya back!" Oksana said, sobbing and wiping away tears of agony.

"We'll find your son," Nate assured her, and the rest of the team nodded in eager agreement.

The boy's father was a member of the Russian mafia, a fact Oksana said she was unaware of until after Anatoly had ended their relationship. She said he had left her nothing but a little money and the clothes on her back. Oksana had been unable to go to the authorities for help. She had explained to them her legal status in the U.S. was questionable at best, she told them she was afraid that if she went to the authorities they'd deport her without her son because his father had legal residency, and if that happened she knew she'd never see Ilya again.

Hours later, after Hardison had disabled the compound's electronic security measures, Eliot sneaked his way inside, making his way to where Oksana had indicated her son would be. Hardison and Parker would act as backup from Lucille 2.5 but since he was the retrieval specialist, Eliot had made the argument that he should go in alone because he knew it'd minimalize the risk of getting caught.

Within ten minutes he had reached the part of the compound the boy was supposed to be, and after listening to be sure Ilya was alone, Eliot entered the room. It was in the middle of the night, so the boy would be asleep and the plan had been to try to get him out without waking him. If the boy did wake up Eliot would explain to him he was taking him to his mother, and hopefully that'd keep him quiet long enough for Eliot to get him outside.

Pulling back the covers, Eliot frowned and he muttered, "What the..."

"Eliot, what's wrong?" Nate's voice sounded in his ear for the first time that night.

A realization hit Eliot as he answered, and he made a quick about face to get out of the room. "The kid's not here!"

"He should be there, man, it's what his mama told us."

"I'm telling you, Hardison, he's not in his room! Now be quiet! There's a good chance this was a trap, and I need to hear what's going on outside this room if I am going to get out of here!"

"Let us know when you're in the clear," Nate said, cutting off any more comm chatter.

Everyone tensed, wanting to act but knowing that it was best to let Eliot handle it in the way he thought best. Eliot was good at getting himself out of these types of tight spots, so they fully expected to hear him announce he was safe within moments. Nate and Sophie shared a look, both expressing their concern to each other. The fact that this appeared to be a trap had some pretty serious implications, ones Nate would have to consider once his team member was in the clear.

Back in the compound Eliot had opened the door slowly, looking back and forth in the dark hallway, listening carefully for any signs of movement. When he didn't hear anything, he started to retrace his steps, pressed against the wall as much as it would let him. He was almost back to the window he had used to get inside when he felt a sharp pain in the back of his shoulder.

Eliot immediately pulled out the tranquilizer dart but he knew it was already too late as he felt it doing its work, and out of the corner of his eye he could see the blurry forms of hired muscle moving towards him. It took every last bit of the strength he had left to say, "Nate, we've... got a problem. I'm not... go...gonna..."

A thud was overheard on the comm, which was followed by the distinct sound of punches being thrown and landed on flesh. The only sound that remotely sounded like Eliot was a few grunts and groans as the abuse continued for well over a minute.

"Enough!" The Russian word was spoken harshly and was quickly followed by, "There will be plenty of time for that later when Mr. Spencer has woken up from his little nap." Sophie gasped, looking over to Nate and she could see the wheels already turning in his head as he planned out what their next move would be.

With a level voice he called on the hacker of the team,"Hardison?"

"Yeah, Nate?"

"Do you still have their security disabled enough for Parker to get inside unnoticed?"

Hardison checked his readings. "Yeah, it's still down for the moment. But I don't know how long that's gonna last given they _knew_ we was coming. For all I know the fact they let me disable their systems could be a part of the trap."

Sophie was shaking her head no when Nate spoke next as she knew where he was going with this. "Parker, can you get in and help Eliot without getting caught?"

She nodded although Nate couldn't see her.

"Parker says yeah, she can do it." Hardison supplied the thief's audible reply.

"All right, Parker, you're on standby. As soon as we know Eliot's awake, you're going in."

"Okay, I'll be ready."

Ten minutes passed without one sound being heard over the comm and the team was left to wonder what was being done to Eliot, or what his condition was. Finally when they heard something again, the voice who spoke to them belonged to the one who had given the orders that halted the beating the guards were giving Eliot. The sound of his voice made their collective blood run cold. "Hello, Mr. Ford."

Nate was the first to recover. "Who are you and what do you want? Where's my man?"

"Oh I think you already know who I am, Mr. Ford. However in the happenstance you or your people do not, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Anatoly Kuznetsov, and it is 'your man' I want and what I _have_."

Sophie scribbled a question down, and showed it to Nate not wanting Kuznetsov to hear her voice. Unfortunately, he didn't get to ask it before Hardison voiced it for them.

"Yo what would you want with Eliot, man?"

A sharp intake of breath was heard after he finished speaking and Nate assumed Parker had probably elbowed him. If it had been any other sort of situation Nate might have smiled before he repeated Sophie and Hardison's question. "What do you want with him?"

Kuznetsov's voice chilled them even further when he answered, "It's very simple what I want with him, Mr. Ford. Very simple. I want him to suffer as I have suffered. Wake him."

Sometimes, Nate thought, the comms Hardison had made especially for the team were way too good. As he listened to the sounds of the Russian's men "waking" Eliot up, he really wished they weren't so good at picking up every little thing going on in the room. It was very hard on him to keep his silence but Nate knew anything they said would only make it worse on Eliot because he knew the Russian use their distress of listening to the hitter being tortured to only torment Eliot even further.

The team barely stayed silent, looking to Nate to know how to react as they heard Eliot being woken up and beaten. The good news Eliot had finally woken up and from the sound of it was fighting back as well as he could under the circumstances but his effort was obviously an exercise in futility as he was certain Kuznetsov had more than an adequate number of men present to ensure Eliot wouldn't be able to even the odds enough to escape.

The sound of a tazer discharging, and Eliot's subsequent yell of pain was the straw that broke the back of team's silence, Parker screeched, "Stop it! Stop hurting him!"

Merciful silence fell, and they heard the smile in Kuznetsov's voice when he said, "That's enough for right now. We don't want to kill Mr. Spencer before the fun really begins, do we?" They heard cruel laughter and a few crude comments from the guards. The Russian's voice came over the comm again, "It appears Spencer wishes to speak to you, Mr. Ford."

The next voice they heard was Eliot's, far weaker than they were used to. "Nate?"

"I'm here, Eliot. We're going to get you -"

"Nate, they're not going to let me talk long so you need to listen to me. You gotta leave me behind."

"Eliot, we can't!"

He knew she was crying because her accent tended to get more pronounced when she was tired or overemotional. "Sophie, I _mean_ it. Nate, you can't come after me. I can handle whatever they've got in mind."

"No, we're _not_ going to just leave you there."

Kuznetsov's voice cut any further conversation, "I think that's enough for the moment. I'm going to let my men enjoy themselves a little, and then I want to tell you a story about your dear Mr. Spencer."

"Sophie, Parker, don't listen to this!" They heard Eliot yell just prior to the first blow landing. "Hardison, cut off their comms!"

"If you cut them off, _Hardison_, I will kill him. You're all going to listen to this or he dies right now."

In the van, Hardison was frozen both from the threat and from listening to what they were doing to his friend. Nate knew he wouldn't cut off the comms, and he grateful he didn't need to say anything because he knew he wouldn't be able to trust his voice right now.

The sounds of Eliot's torment seemed to go on forever, and before it was over Nate had pulled Sophie close to him as she lost the battle to stifle her sobs. He thought he had heard similar sounds from who he knew had to be Parker and he could only hope Hardison was doing something to ease her agony too.

At last they heard Kuznetsov bark out the halt order to his men, the pleasure apparent in his voice as he said, "I know you can't see the fruit of their handiwork but from what you've heard, I think you heard enough to judge the quality fairly I think. My men are quite efficient what they do. Wouldn't you agree, Miss Devereaux?"

In response to his taunt Sophie spat back a venomous and very vulgar reply in Russian where she told Kuznetsov just what she thought of him, causing him to roar with laughter when she finally fell silent. He then repeated Sophie's words for the entertainment of his men which caused another roar of laughter. "Ah Miss Devereaux, you are lucky I find actual wrongs against my life more worthy of repayment than any petty words themselves."

"And I can't imagine anything Eliot could've done to you that would justify you torturing him like this!" Sophie replied.

He laughed a little more before he said, "Then it shall be my great pleasure to introduce you to what Eliot Spencer truly is, Miss Devereaux. It's going to be a true eye opening experience I promise you."

Nate could practically hear the eye roll in Hardison's voice when he said, "You're more than welcome to try to shock us." Hardison clearly had faith in the hitter, faith Nate hoped wouldn't be completely shattered by the time the Russian finished.

Kuznetsov took a breath that couldn't have been any more over dramatic than Sophie's attempts of acting on stage then asked, "Did you know that before he became one of the world's best retrieval specialists, Mr. Spencer here had been one of the world's top, most ruthless assassins for hire?" It was clear the Russian's question was rhetorical as he kept on talking, not waiting for an answer from his audience. "And like most hired murderers he didn't care who he had been given orders to hurt or how, so as long as he got the job done exactly as instructed."

"Yo if this is about Eliot working for Moreau, we already know about that, man!"

"Ah yes, Damien Moreau. I haven't thank you and your crew yet for taking him down. So I will say thank you now, Mr. Ford." He waited as though he expected Nate to respond to that, then shrugged when he heard nothing. "Now where was I? Ah, yes! I was telling you about who Mr. Spencer really is."

"Yo could you just get to the punchline already?"

Nate closed his eyes, knowing what was coming and knowing how much this was about to gut his entire team emotionally. Unfortunately in the next several minutes, Kuznetsov confirmed Nate's fear by laying out a very detailed account of the murders of his older brother along with his family at Eliot's hands. He detailed every torture Moreau had ordered and Eliot had carried out as instructed, only pausing when they heard someone retching over the comms after he mentioned young children were among the victims.

"You're lying! Eliot wouldn't torture kids!" Parker said.

"Oh he wouldn't? Here, why don't you tell them truth, Spencer? Why don't you tell them it's true? That you are _zhivotnoye_ of the worst kind. The kind that tortures and murders defenseless children!" The Russian had returned the comm to Eliot as he spoke. "Tell them or I'll have them all rounded up, and I won't be as nice to them as I've been to you. Not even to the lovely ladies on your pathetic little team."

"It's true," Eliot grunted. "Everything he said is truth." The silence on the comms after that was deafening.

"If you want Mr. Spencer back now, I'll give him to you. Your pretty little blonde thief can come retrieve him right now and I will do nothing to stop you. But once you leave here with him, you become responsible for his crimes – every single one of you. And not just in my eyes."

Eliot prayed Nate would just leave him here. Death would be preferable to facing them all now and putting them in the line of danger from these kind of people.

"Well, Mr. Ford, what is your decision?"

Nate swallowed hard, unable to look at Sophie as he said, "Parker?"

"Yeah, Nate?" The thief's voice sounded so much like a wounded child's voice right then.

"Go get Eliot."

0o0

**Translation: **zhivotnoye = beast or animal


	2. Chapter 2: Author's Note

Dear readers,

I am sorry this isn't the update I know you've all be waiting for. I'm sorry to say I have had a case of writers block for this story even when I know where generally this story needs to go. The words don't want to flow sadly and if I force them I am afraid what you'll get will be lousy.

I am also a member of Leverageland on LiveJournal and when things get super busy I must focus all my attention/creative energies towards completing the challenges there (Go Team Hacker!) and that's another reason a new chapter of this fic has been delayed. I am so sorry for the delay on updating this fic but hopefully the next time I post anything to this fic it will be an actual update.

Oh and I had planned for this to be a 2 chapter fic but I'm expanding this to at least _three_ chapters because I've got a bit of things to cover, you know?

Anyway hope to give you guys a real update soon!


End file.
